00:00 A caucus with a clear call.
00:04 What we are calling for today is to have a national commissioner for Aboriginal children
00:10 and young people.
00:11 At the largest Aboriginal child welfare conference in the country, advocates say the status quo
00:17 is failing.
00:19 They want to turn over a new page.
00:21 Our children are over-represented in all the wrong ways, in out of home care, in the youth
00:28 justice systems, in failures in education.
00:31 These are system failures.
00:33 Government being called to act rather than react later.
00:37 It's significantly faster to stand up a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's
00:42 commissioner than it would be to call a royal commissioner.
00:45 This could be in place before the end of the year and certainly the announcement could
00:49 come a lot faster.
00:51 At the other end of the country in Canberra, neither the federal government nor opposition
00:56 are making promises.
00:57 When contacted by the ABC, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said determining
01:03 the functions of a national advocate is underway through a government plan.
01:07 However, what form it may take isn't particularly clear and there are no hard timelines for
01:14 when such a role would be created.
01:16 For now, the federal focus firmly on The Voice, which launched its local campaign in Darwin
01:22 today.
01:24 It's here on the ground in Darwin arguing that irrespective of whether a voice to parliament
01:29 is successful or not, a national commissioner dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
01:34 Islander children is essential for improving outcomes for young children.
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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